Four New England natives and six other players playing their college hockey in the region were named to the final United States roster for the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship on Sunday, but the future of the Boston Bruins will also be on display during the tournament that commences on Wednesday in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia.
Defenseman Urho Vaakanainen was a late addition to Team Finland’s roster on Friday and will see game action for the first time since spending nearly two months on injured reserve. Boston’s first-round draftee from 2017 gives the B’s six prospects bound for World Juniors, representing a handful of different countries.
“Hopefully these guys can use the World Juniors as kind of a spring board,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said before Saturday’s win over the Nashville Predators at TD Garden. “You're playing against your elite peers, so if you can do well there it bodes well for your future.”
Vaakanainen, the team’s No. 18 overall pick in 2017, played in six games for the AHL’s Providence Bruins and a pair for Boston earlier this season before suffering a concussion that sidelined him since Oct. 30. The smooth-skating blue liner had recently been cleared for contact this week before he was named to his country’s roster for the third straight year.
The lone Boston prospect on the U.S. squad is goaltender Kyle Keyser, who ranks second in the Ontario Hockey League with a .931 save percentage through 24 games this season. The Coral Springs, Fla., native joins Northeastern sophomore Cayden Primeau and U.S. National Team Development Program product Spencer Knight (Darien, Conn.) on the netminding depth chart for the Americans.
Keyser is the team’s lone undrafted prospect on a World Junior roster as he was signed as a free agent following the 2017 Prospects Challenge in Buffalo, N.Y. He has since worked his way into the No. 1 role with the Oshawa Generals and participated in Boston’s main training camp this year.
“Keyser I didn’t see a lot of, but I know they’re real high on him,” Cassidy said. “I know ‘Goalie Bob’ (Bruins goaltending coach Bob Essensa) thought he’s come a long way. He’s a very competitive kid.”
Competition for slots on the Boston roster was open prior to the start of this season, and two players with Bruins ties who are set to compete at World Juniors were a big part of those battles. Canadian center Jack Studnicka and Czech left winger Jakub Lauko both played in multiple preseason games for Boston.
Lauko made a major impression with the Boston brass this preseason as he scored two goals in two National Hockey League games and signed a three-year, entry-level contract after being drafted in the third round in June. The 6-foot, 170-pounder was confident in his ability to make crack the NHL lineup during camp, though he was ultimately returned to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and remains a point-per-game player for the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.
“I think he got concussed, ran into the freight train called Noel Acciari in practice, so he learned the hard way,” Cassidy said of Lauko, who was part of the B’s roster that played in North America while the coach led the traveling party to China to begin the preseason. “I didn't see a lot of him in practice, but he has lots of speed, lots of energy and a little bit of a rat in him as well. I think that he'll annoy some people, so that could be a good quality if you harness that.”
Lauko scored in both exhibition games for the Czech Republic, a team to which defenseman Daniel Bukac was also named. The 6-foot-5, 207-pound member of the Ontario Hockey League’s Niagara IceDogs was Boston’s seventh-round draft pick in 2017.
Studnicka was one of several youngsters competing for the vacated No. 3 center position on the Bruins at the season’s outset, but Cassidy and general manager Don Sweeney opted to return him to the Ontario Hockey League. He has a 12-21-33 line in 29 games for the Oshawa Generals.
“I thought he had a good camp,” Cassidy said of Studnicka, who was the B’s 53rd overall pick in 2017. “I just didn't think, as a junior-age player, he was ready to play ahead of (Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson) or (Trent) Frederic making that decision that quick. Who knows with half a year under him? But that's neither here nor there. Hopefully he does a good job there.”
TSN analyst Bob McKenzie had high praise for the No. 53 overall pick in 2017 after the first game of Canada’s selection camp on Dec. 13, saying, “it was pretty obvious that Jack Studnicka was the best player on the ice.” He proceeded to factor into the scoring against Switzerland and Slovakia in pre-tournament play.
Rounding out Boston’s World Junior farmhands is speedy center Pavel Shen, who will represent Russia after being drafted in the seventh round this year.
Three consecutive U.S. clubs have earned medals at World Juniors, including two with Charlie McAvoy on the blue line. The former Boston University standout was on the last American team to take home gold in 2017, while Bruins teammates Ryan Donato (Scituate, Mass.), Brandon Carlo, and Anders Bjork (who is currently in the AHL) were bronze medal-winning teammates with McAvoy during his first tournament a year prior.
The Long Beach, N.Y., native is, naturally, rooting for his native country to take home another gold medal. McAvoy’s memories of doing so still rank highly among his many career highlights, and competing against some of the best players under 20 years of age certainly helped him become the confident player he is today at the sport’s highest level.
“The pride in playing for your country is one of the best feelings in the world,” said McAvoy, who had six points and a plus-11 rating in 14 career games at World Juniors. “You almost have to experience it to feel it. It's truly something special. …
“That’s one of my greatest accomplishments in hockey to this point. (I remember) seeing those guys for the first time, playing against them and saying, 'Oh wow, he is really good. I have to elevate, I have to try and match that.’”
For the next wave of Bruins, this is their opportunity to do the same.
